The New Hatemongers

Possibly the erroneous report and the exaggerated reaction to the strange confrontation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC in mid-January, an event called Covington Affair, may be the worst example of so-called “false news”. The large gap between what actually happened and the report of this could hardly have been broader. In this case, however, the writing of real-time video, instant communication, and digital networks of the media / social media / social justice crowd was equally available to the supporters of the middle school boys at Covington Catholic High School in Make America Great Again. School in Kentucky.

It should be noted that initially they were established as white supremacist provocateurs, it soon became known that a group of older and larger activists had attacked the children and shouted, among many abusive terms, “bassoon” and “cracker”. The “native elder” that sounded in the omnipresent video of his face-to-face confrontation with the children turned out to be a condemned criminal and a serial liar.

It is necessary to emphasize that these boys were initially thrown to the wolves by their school and even the leaders of their church, but others joined their cause, especially after the full video of 15 minutes of the test was published. the students. Since then, they have filed defamation suits against CNN and the Washington Post, which “broke” the false story and are considering similar actions against dozens of other sources who vilified them.

What is new

Several similar events have occurred. An example of this could be just over a day after the confrontation of Covington and more than 4,000 km to the northwest, a similar event occurred in a Canadian cultural monument, in a hockey stadium in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

There is no doubt that the place and the people involved show that nothing is immune to the misrepresentation and that nobody is safe from the mafia. Nowadays, anyone’s life can be ruined in a matter of hours.

The stories of Covington and Fort McMurray followed a family script. The mainstream media or a social media platform report a small part of an event out of context, anger arises online, then the story is recycled and amplified through interviews and discussions with people far removed from history. In the mainstream media, these discussion forums are commonly referred to as “indignation panels.”